Johns Hopkins University recently called for Congress to enact legislation on digital contact tracing technologies. The report issued by the Berman Institute for Bioethics provided insights on the ethical, legal, policy, and governance issues needed as we move into a digital contact-tracing fueled future.
Johns Hopkins further advised that technology design should not be static and that a “one size fits all” approach would not be effective. Also, that privacy should be built into the design as well as additional opt-in features, and that de-identified data should be made available to public health officials for epidemiology studies. Governments should not require mandatory use of the tools given the uncertainties.
The report noted that equity, choice, economic well-being, and solidarity must be balanced with privacy, to provide communities with the best chance to fight COVID-19 using digital contact tracing technologies.
At the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology, we also believe that digital contact tracing is a necessary next step in the pandemic response and agree that some compromise on privacy is needed to improve public health monitoring. Further, we posit that contact tracing solutions need to be developed at a local level in conjunction with County Health departments. Local jurisdictions need to undertake research on what is needed in their communities, rather than leaving this to be dealt with at a national level.
We look to South Korea and countries in Europe as examples of countries that have developed effective digital contact tracing apps and strategies in the fight against COVID-19. We believe that a transparent contact tracing system utilizing de-identified data — such as the digital technology being used in Seoul — provides an adaptable roadmap for what could be implemented in the U.S. to ensure public health. We note that the specific measures used in South Korea may make Americans uncomfortable due to their invasion of privacy and perceived overreach.
Seoul’s coronavirus response has a heavy focus on transparency to the public when a case is diagnosed. Information on a confirmed case is immediately anonymized and placed on a government website, social media and sent via text alert to every phone in the nation of more than 50-million people. A unique, effective, and controversial element of South Korea’s strategy is to disclose prescriptive detail on where the patient has traveled in the days and weeks prior to diagnosis. This information is procured from closed-circuit television cameras on the streets of the nation, as well as from confidential credit card transactions. The government justifies extracting this information because it is de-identified when published and is used in the name of public health.
As our communities open-up from stay-at-home orders, we need to be confident in the digital technology solutions provided by public health systems and the private sector that can reveal how infections may have spread. Privacy is important, but we must also consider how equity, choice, economic well-being, and solidarity factor into the technology we are creating. Institutions such as Johns Hopkins are playing an important role in understanding what is appropriate for the United States in its fight against this pandemic and setting governance guidelines on how to navigate forward. We can also learn from other countries on how they are simultaneously anonymizing data and providing the general public with as much de-identified information as possible to manage Covid-19.